Monday, February 19, 2018

Hi and welcome to the Spellbinders February 19th Blog Hop! I'm so excited to be a guest this month and participate in the hop, using the Stephanie Low "Handmade" stamps and dies. There's a giveaway today, too, so be sure to play along for the chance to win a $50 Spellbinders gift certificate. (Details below!)

I hope you've joined me today by way of the wonderfully talented Hussena Calcuttawala, but if you haven't and you'd like to start the hop from the beginning, just head to the Spellbinders blog for the full lineup.

I have a couple small gifts that I made up featuring the Kitchen and Handcrafted sets. I love the baking set with that gorgeous floral rolling pin and knew I had to break out some blender pens to do it justice. On a large tag, I stamped it repeatedly in a yellowish-green and then colored it in the with peachy-pink inks. To add some texture, I put a scrap of lace and ruffle trim along the lower part of the tag.

I stamped the cupcake next and then filled that in with similar colors. I die cut it out and attached it to a glittery tag with foam dots for dimension.

For the gift wrap itself, I covered a 4" x 4" box with peach crepe paper, more lace, and some bronze shimmer twine. I like a lot of different textures! I slipped the rolling pin tag under the twine and the cupcake and glitter tag over it.

For my second package, I used the Handcrafted and Yarn sets, beginning with another large tag. I stamped a repetitive pattern of the pretty floral included in the set. I stamped it in a navy blue, then colored it in with a turquoise bloom and slightly purplish leaves.

Next, I stamped and die cut the scissor and paint brushes image, found in the Handcrafted set. I also stamped and die cut "hand made for you" which is from the Yarn set. I actually stacked 2 of these together for a thicker look, and then added it to the lower left corner of the stamped floral tag.

I aimed to create a layered tag, with the scissor/brush die cut as the top and the large tag on the bottom. Sandwiched in between the two is a handful of trims--lace, sequins, and ribbon.

This time for the gift wrap, I used the floral stamp to create my own patterned paper, stamping repeatedly on bright white printer paper. It's one of my favorite techniques when I have small packages to wrap. I didn't use any extra trims here aside from what I included on the tag set itself. I adhered it all to the package with a mini clothespin.

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today! I hope you enjoyed my take on these amazing sets from Stephanie Low and Spellbinders. Be sure to check out all the other girls participating in the hop. The awesome Emily Leiphart is up next so definitely don't miss her! Here is the full lineup of participants, for your convenience:

To celebrate this release, Spellbinders is giving away a $50 gift certificate to THREE lucky winners. Please leave a comment on the Spellbinders blog by Wednesday, February 21st 11:59 pm EDT for a chance to win. The winners will be announced in the blog hop post on the Spellbinders blog the following day.

Thursday, February 1, 2018

Welcome to the Pinkfresh Studio Blog Hop! The Cards Team is showcasing all kinds of new stamps and dies so you're definitely in for some fun today! You should have arrived from the lovely Amy Tsuruta's blog and she always has awesome projects to share. After me, you'll be heading to May Sukyong Park's corner. If you get lost during the hop, just head back to the Pinkfresh blog and find your way again.

I have a trio of cards for all different occasions. While I plan to send each of these cards out to friends, I thought that the set could also be a useful gift. The cards weren't terribly time-consuming to create so I can definitely make up a few batches for giving.

I can't give away these cards as a set without some cute packaging, though! I stamped a little scene on a 4" x 6" muslin bag. "Happy Everything" was the perfect stamp to convey all the occasions of the cards. Next up, 2 little tags: the bottom tag features a birdie and some dots from the Bird With Flowers set, and the smaller tag says "you are one of a kind." The final touches were some matching trims and a yarn pom pom.

Onto the cards--let's begin with something celebratory! I used a couple of different stamp sets to create a balloon bouquet--Birds & Bows and Tealightful Day. I was able to turn a flower stem from the set Bird With Flowers into a balloon string, too! I then built a bow in pink and black inks, also from the Birds & Bows set.

My sentiment came from Inna Moreva's Magical Unicorn (her lettering is so beautiful!). I added some gold sequins to punch up the festive feeling a little and add some sparkle.

On the next card, I only used one stamp, but I incorporated patterned papers and die cuts to create a scene and I'm really happy with the way it turned out. My papers are from Escape the Ordinary (Dare, Transform, & Chase). I used dies that coordinate with Susan Driscoll's Fleur 2 stamp set.

The "thankful" stamp can be found in the Word Series: Thanks set. The finishing touch is a little lace hand-stitched to the edge of card.

The last card is all stamping. This card is for a family friend going through a difficult time. The idea here is that the raindrops (symbolizing her rough patch) at the top of the card are stopped by the heartfelt sentiment in the middle of the card. And below that, a subdued floral pattern. The sentiment and flowers offer hope for better times, or at the very least, her knowing I am here with a shoulder when she needs it so she can get through the difficult time.

There are so many options for stamps and dies in this release! I've shown you a few ideas for different occasions--even making a gift set out of all 3 cards! Your next stop is May Sukyong Park and she is an absolute stamping genius!

Don't rush off too quick, though...I have to tell you about the contest! Simply leave a comment at each stop on the hop and you may be 1 of 4 lucky folks who will receive a $25.00 gift certificate to the Pinkfresh Studio store! That's right--FOUR winners! Comments close at 11:59 PM CST on February 8, 2018. Winner will be announced on the Pinkfresh Studio blog on February 10th. Good luck and thanks so much for stopping by!

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

It's December 6th, and that means you can find a new Packaging Ambassador post from me on the Papertrey Ink blog. (And I made videos, you guys.) Also this month, you'll find a NEW Papertrey Ink BLOG! It's bittersweet, since it meant saying farewell to our beloved leader at PTI, Nichole Heady. It feels like the end of an era with her gone, as she's been such a driving, supportive, expert force at PTI, and in the papercrafting community as a whole. But as we pick up the pieces of her sad departure (sad for us, happy for Nichole who can begin a new adventure), the Design Team is also excited for a new beginning...

As for me, I'm hoping to step up my designing game in 2018, and offer a few more fun packaging-centric items for all of the other gift wrap nuts like myself out there (I know there are a lot of you! Don't be shy--raise your hand!). But before we look too far ahead, let's have a current look at what I'm doing with my Good Tidings Holiday Packaging kits:

First of all, you can visit the PTI blog for my Packaging post which is dedicated to gift card holders this month. There's a die for that in the Good Tidings Main kit and I'm showing you how to cut, assemble, and embellish it--in mostly video format. Have a look after you finish here...

On this side of things, I'm making and using adhesive labels! These were a fun addition to the Main kit because even though the majority of them are pre-designed for quick use, we also included 6 sheets of blank labels for you to create your own--36 stickers in all. I'm sharing a quick look at a few of the ones that I made the other day, as well as a simple way to use the labels that are pre-made.

You can use ink and stamps to make any design you want (that will fit on a 1 3/4" circle, of course), but I designed the Good Tidings stamps to include small-sized images and sentiments, too, partly because of these labels. What good are they if you can't do anything with them because all the stamps are too big?

I've used the tiny pine tree stamps, the bows, little 3-leaf flourishes, and pine branches to liven up each of the labels, pairing an image with a bite-sized sentiment. Sticking with 2 or 3 colors will give you contrast, without overwhelming your project.

I stayed with the color scheme of the Good Tidings kit here, but in the future, I'll branch out a bit and incorporate more colors. For now, though, I chose these hues because those are the colors I'm partial to this year. With the red and green buffalo check craze that's happening all over the internet, I think a lot of folks are feeling that way. But I did have to throw in some pink and a little orangey-yellow for a some unexpected fun :)

Just a little trick I thought I'd share...There's a curved stamp sentiment ('tis the season for giving) and while the actual curve is wider than these labels allow, I manipulated the stamp to fit.

One of the best uses for these stickers is simply wrapped little boxes. I have a few samples here, using a strip of ribbon or the copper foil tape (both available in the Good Tidings Trimmings Add-on kit). The small packages look like they're sealed--this is particularly a clever way to wrap gifts that need to be mailed (and I have many of those!). You still get to dress up the gift, but there's nothing loose or bulky to make piling the presents into a shipping box awkward.

Decorate your holiday table with small favors wrapped this way; it can be modern...

...or it can be elegant.

If you haven't ordered your Good Tidings kit(s) yet, you still have time to get it (them) before the holidays arrive! Make your wrappings a cinch this season with everything you need for packaging your presents (except the paper!), all curated into a festive and coordinating ensemble.

Please join me back here this weekend for another look at some Good Tidings wrappings, and don't forget to check out the PTI blog for my gift card holder tutorials!

Friday, December 1, 2017

And just like that, it's December! Can you believe that?! What better way to kick off the last month of 2017 than with a holiday blog hop? Join me and the rest of the gals from the Pinkfresh Studio Cards Team as we share some festive greetings. As always, there will be a giveaway you don't want to miss out on, so be sure to leave comments along the way. I'll have a few more details on that at the end of this post.

You most likely arrived here from Amy Tsuruta's blog--she has some absolutely adorable cards over there! (And isn't she one of the kindest, most supportive cardmakers out there?) If you've arrived from a different spot and want to know what this hop is all about, head to the Pinkfresh Studio blog where you'll find details and a complete tour list with links.

I've got some quick ones for you; they were so quick, in fact, that I made 3 because I felt guilty just sharing 2! The first one took me the longest to make because I did a bit of die cutting. I only used items from the December Days collection, including the stamp and die set.

You can see I die cut the pretty branches and then stamped them in shades of green. They're arranged around a bird and branch puffy sticker, which was the catalyst for this design idea.

I layered a bit of tulle and gold metallic thread under the 'Sparkle' tag, and then applied the sticker and stamped branches. All 3 of my cards today measure 4" x 4" (my current favorite size), and I allowed some of the branches that I die cut to hang over the edges.

The second card was so easy! I don't know about you, but during the holidays, I love it when my cards come together in minutes. This one is also nice because it's not too thick or bulky so it can be mailed without the addition of extra postage.

I started by stamping a repeat pattern of little black trees right on my card base. You can find the tree stamp in the Festive Llama set. Christmas trees are so on trend this year, have you noticed? And this little tree is so perfect for creating an easy background like this.

I then put together a cluster of puffy sticker trees from December Days, and chose a die cut I could use as my sentiment. There was room in the top 'box' to stamp something so I went with "JOY" from the Simple Joy stamp set. It's not overpowering, and the typography complements the style of the die cut, as well as the modern, minimal feel of the card.

I added a panel of white lace to the bottom half of the card for texture. The card contents are pretty flat but the addition of the lace kicks the interest level up a notch.

My last card is just fun, though the details were sadly difficult to capture on camera. I chose bright, nontraditional holiday colors for this one. While I'm kind of going with a traditional color palette in terms of personal style this year, I sometimes can't help but break the mold and just go a little unexpected.

I took the dotted garland stamp from Joy & Cheer and turned it into string from which I hung a DD foil die cut ornament. (I kind of love it!) I adhered the bulb with a foam dot for depth, since the rest of the card is fairly one-dimensional.

In lime green ink, I stamped "falala" from the Festive Llama set. I taped off the "LLAMA" part of the sentiment since there are none of them in sight on this card! The brushed lettering of the "falala" is just the sort of carefree feeling that I want this card to invoke, though, so the extra step to mask the unwanted word was definitely worth it (and really wasn't all that time-consuming to do anyhow).

Taking a couple cute snowflakes from the Merry & Bright set, I stamped them all over the rest of the card in orange. Why not orange?! Just as I was finishing up, I decided I'd add a few small white pom-poms to the card for some much needed ... you guessed it, texture! They look so cute in person, but I had a difficult time capturing the cuteness due to the white-on-white nature of them. You'll just have to believe me when I tell you that they make a cute card way cuter!

Thank you so much for stopping by today. You're off to Elena Roussakis's blog now and she never, ever disappoints!

Be sure to comment at each blog in order to be eligible to win the holiday stamps and dies during the giveaway. Comments will close at 11:59pm CST on Friday, December 8, 2017. The winner will be randomly selected and will be announced Monday, December 11, on the Pinkfresh Studio blog. Good luck!